Meta Announces Major Investment in Indiana Data Center Hub
February 11, 2026
In a significant expansion of its artificial intelligence infrastructure, Meta Platforms Inc. has commenced construction on a massive new data center campus in Lebanon, Indiana. The move underscores the escalating demand for computing power driven by the generative AI race, pushing hyperscalers to develop facilities of unprecedented scale and efficiency. The social media and technology giant announced this week that it is breaking ground on the campus located in Boone County, approximately 29 miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis. The project represents a capital investment exceeding $10 billion in both the data center infrastructure and the surrounding community, which Meta described as "one of our largest infrastructure investments to date." The campus is designed for a total capacity of one gigawatt (1GW), a benchmark for next-generation AI compute clusters. Renderings suggest plans for around a dozen buildings of various sizes on the site. The development follows earlier reports from 2024 that Meta had secured tax abatement from the local council for the project. In its announcement, Meta emphasized its commitment to responsible resource use, stating it will pay the full costs for energy used and work closely with utilities on long-term planning to avoid negative impacts on local residents. The company also pledged to restore 100 percent of the water it consumes to local watersheds, utilizing a water-efficient closed-loop, liquid-cooled system designed to use zero water for a majority of the year. This marks Meta's second major development in Indiana, complementing a previously announced $800 million, 700,000-square-foot campus in Jeffersonville. The Lebanon project is a key component of Meta's broader strategy to build tens of gigawatts of compute capacity this decade. The company recently established a dedicated division, Meta Compute, to oversee this aggressive build-out. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated the ambition is to reach "hundreds of gigawatts or more over time." This aligns with the company's staggering projected capital expenditures of $115-135 billion for 2026 and its previously stated plan to spend approximately $600 billion on U.S. data centers by 2028. The Indiana campus joins other mega-projects in Meta's portfolio, including the multi-gigawatt "Hyperion" site in Louisiana, signaling a structural shift in the data center industry toward concentrated, power-intensive hubs essential for training and deploying advanced AI models. Source: datacenterdynamics
